Top 7 HR Challenges In 2018

Human Resource professionals wear many hats and manage a variety of responsibilities – from recruitment to retirement. It rarely happens that a day in an HR department passes slow.

Managing human resource department and enforcing policies in an organization have always been a constant concern for HR. But the job doesn’t end here.

The department is always inundated with numerous activities like compliance processes, talent acquisition, payroll processing, retention programs, talent management, and a lot more. Amid the chaos, HR professionals often don’t get time to deal with common challenges that are needed to be addressed for building a smartly managed company.

What are the aspects in human resource management that you may find most challenging as an HR professional?

Recruiting Top Talent

Recruitment landscape has changed dramatically due to increase in rapidly rising hiring volume. In a candidate-driven job market, there are high demands of talented and skilled professionals. Identifying a right job applicant requires a proactive approach, something which is beyond publishing job ads on portals and social media and making cold calls to the candidates.

Another obstacle in finding top talent is a non-collaborative approach where hiring managers and recruiters think differently. According to a study by iCIMS, 77% of hiring managers say that recruiters’ candidate screening is ‘inadequate’ where 51% of recruiters claim that hiring managers ‘should do a better job by communicating what they are looking for in a candidate’ and ‘provide relatable examples’.

Executing Continuous Compliance

HR has a key role to play in the organization’s compliance structure. They have to comply with the employment laws at all times and failing to do so can result in major legal consequences for the business. Most often, ignorance towards compliance procedures and their effectiveness lead to unavoidable problems.

There are laws and regulations about everything from hiring practices, to wage payment, to workplace safety. Regardless of the size of an organization, employers must ensure they remain compliant with local, state, and federal labor laws in all aspects.

Managing Employee Benefits

Since years, Paid Vacation Time, Affordable Care Act, 401k plans, Health Insurance and other benefits have been a pain point for HR. And the issues do not seem to resolve any sooner.

23% of HR leaders believe that managing employee benefits is the most difficult part of their job. They must think of ways to keep a balance between the two – employee expectations and limited company budgets.

Understand what is important for your potential hires and what type of offerings would help them attract or retain them. Along with healthcare benefits, focus on offering flex time, wellness programs, subsidized training, unlimited vacation time, commuter benefits and more.

Employee Retention

Many reports have suggested that more than 50 percent of employees leave their newly joined jobs even before touching half-year mark. Why does this happen?

Unfriendly work environment, lack of learning and development opportunities, inflexible company policies, poor relationship with the immediate manager or other factors can be reasons for high employee turnover.

Workplace Harassment

In past years, a lot have already been spoken and written about workplace harassment issues.

We, as a company that deals with people related processes every day and night, firmly believe in the concept of a disciplined workplace. We suggest there should be zero tolerance towards a person who gets involved in bullying or any type of harassment or performs any action which is subjected to violation of a company’s disciplinary rules.

Ignorance towards these sensitive issues may affect the company reputation. Encourage people to voice out their complaints when issues arise and follow-up the subsequent investigation.

Implementing Data Analytics

When it comes to data analytics, there are many challenges that rise up:

» Often companies ignore the significance of analytics to identify people related trends.

» Only 27 percent employers can access HR data via mobile devices. This has been a common challenge in the past decade.

» Does HR have skillsets needed to analyse and make best use of data?

Employers are expected to make significant use of analytics to save the company from losing top talent. When effectively used, people analytics enables HR leaders to gain deeper and clear insights on people, company and processes. Companies that implement data-driven strategies are more successful than those who don’t use analytics optimally.

Developing Future Leaders

A challenge of building a next generation of organizational leaders remains a top priority for HR.

In past few years, massive numbers of skilled, highly experienced baby boomers have retired. This has widened the gap between available talent pool and the talent needed to fill leadership positions.

Besides retirement, sudden exit of leaders for better work opportunities, competitive pay, personal goals, demise or other reason is a major setback.

Most of you must have already gone through our list of most promising HR trends to be followed in this year. Companies have been following these trends to make human resource management a success. Yet some employers are struggling with common HR challenges in people management and related processes. Pick ideas from this post and see what works best for your HR department.

Gunjan Bhatia is a Director at Saigun Technologies. She believes that people are the most important asset and by engaging and empowering the people, an organization can see a better tomorrow. Her blogs deal with HR and talent management.